Next Gen = Less Jobs for Devs

In this piece RealGamerNewz analyzes some recent events including layoffs at a number of game companies and the shutdown of Bioware San Francisco (formerly EA2D). This sweeping trend is explained by a strategic move to value quality over quantity we are told.

It can also mean a better or different opportunity for them. They don't all have to do big AAA titles, they can start with indie games on the PSN, XBLA, WiiWare, PC, IOS, Android and when they get the backing or capital, then they can go on to big AAA titles.

They all have the knowledge to make a game and come up with a concept that can get the backing from Kick starter and what not.

People don't seem to understand that jobs reduce in sectors for a reason. The big fat AAA title doesn't make sense all of the time anymore. Costs of being cutting edge increase all the time.

Smaller indie titles are EXPANDING for a reason, too; they're cheaper to develop, normally cheaper to purchase, and are easier to distribute thanks to the internet and cheaper distributors (they finally realize that having lower fees means more games, cheaper games, and more sales).

"Less jobs" may not be accurate, considering the massive influx of indie titles, of which you so often see veteran backing.

It is interesting, but lets see what people are willing to do with the new consoles.

Not everything has to be AAA.

I think the article points out the lay offs being caused by decisions inside the industry. A domino effect (lay offs) affects the industry from the outside. Plus there could be other minor/major issue that are not so easily seen. I don't think there is a direct cause, just a variation of causes.

On the other hand dev costs are going down, and the refocus on quality over quantity is great for the industry. I've always thought that the smaller inde devs where the best place to hone innovation anyway. They have more freedom to explore ideas and losses are far less devastating financially.

Publishers shouldn't sleep on the smaller projects though, The Inventors Dilemma will start to rear it's head and they'll only end up falling behind.

I'm excited for the next gen. There will inevitably be shake ups, some not-so-good, others elating. But it's looking like the gamers are going to get the sweet end of this deal.

Couldn't agree more. People are so hyped for next-gen, but if you pay attention to what EA is openly saying and Activision and Ubisoft are doing it really shades a negative light on the future. Yeah we will see triple A games, but most of them won't be unique and more and more companies will take less risk. It is going to cost so much to make these games that companies have to recuperate their loses and that means going with generic games that people know will sell.

It means many studios will go the indie route instead of being focused on huge mainstream titles...That's a good thing in my opinion since it would give them way more creative space over being tied down to publishers.

As already mentioned above, jobs will just shift into another sector of the industry. The only ones running around with this scare are the big publishers (for whom I have very little sympathy to begin with). Even the PS4, as it stands, is trying to allow self-publishing (imagine a dev being able to cut down the middleman of the likes of EA or Activision to deliver their product to you).

EVEN if the industry were to crash, all console manufacturers, publishers and devs losing what they have now, another 1984 deal, so what? We as gamers have nothing to worry about to be honest. There would still be devs making games on other platforms through different means. The hardcore gaming market, even if smaller than the casual market, is and will always be there. There will always be someone ready to meet our demand regardless of the circumstances.

"This strategy is a way for publishers to seek forgiveness from gamers and answer their call for a rise in quality and decrease in quantity of titles being released to the mainstream and AAA spaces."

I have always said that the industry would move towards a movie like business model. Save the big block busters for the summer and winter while releasing smaller non-critical/independent movies during the rest of the year.

It would be nice for a small team of devs to work on smaller scale games meant for mobile/psn/xbl/nintendo. Then have a separate bigger tam work on the bigger budget games that have a two/three year production cycle. They could switch out engineers/producers whenever they get tired or want a change and keep the numbers the same without having to layoff.

I think a lot of this could be because in the past there were three or four different kinds of architecture to code to. Now there is really two and there isn't a lot of support for the second. The PS4 and the 720 are as close to regular computers as it gets. The Wii is still pretty close. Last generation there were often three teams. One PS4, one 360 and one Wii. A fourth for the PC. Now there might be one large team that handles the PC, 720 and PS4 that breaks down to smaller groups to optimize code for each of the three. Another small team if the Wii U gets support.

I will be really pissed if they have made all of these cutbacks and then suddenly say the price has to go up because next gen is hard. If they suddenly start to release the PC version with the console versions we will know the reason is they are done together. And we will know their cost are much lower to develop.